Applied Scholastics Spanish Lake

First the dream, hard work to follow.

On my first contact with young West Africans -- July, 2005 in Ghana -- with their passionate optimism despite overwhelming illiteracy borne of a brutal, very recent past, I had the notion that, just maybe, we might work together to make a difference.

Suddenly, it’s 20 years later, with tens-of-thousands inspired by our persistence and good work, fueled through the GoFundMe-funneled generosity of many hundreds of supporters.

Yet, this is only prologue. Our challenge is no longer how to introduce the region’s educators in L. Ron Hubbard’s Study Technology, proven effective, competency-based learning. The task now is to create the capacity to meet the exploding demand for such training. For instance, through the several workshops conducted in Central Region over the last 24 months, the Ghana Education Service regional director has called for Study Tech instruction to all 22,000 teachers under his administration.

And so it goes. Last February and March, Applied Scholastics master trainer Dr. Olatunde Odewumi certified the first ten Ghanaian educators as Study Tech instructors. Starting in April, they embarked in turn on training the first several hundred teachers in the Central Region.

This February, Dr. Odewumi returns to the region from Nigeria, this time to train and certify an initial 25 top Liberian educators as Study Tech instructors, with aim transform education in that country from a rote exercise to learning for comprehension and competence.

Thus, with increasing orders of magnitude, we work to answer the regional director's call. And thus, once again, we must generate the funds necessary to make the impossible possible, an educational renaissance in countries that very recently, by the weight of poverty, corruption, and war, were seemingly going down for the last time.

To those who have helped get us to this new threshold – and to all who will pitch in now – thank you.

A. Beginnings

Joseph Yarsiah, living in Liberia’s capital Monrovia in 1989, was a little kid eagerly looking forward to Christmas. Months earlier, fighters led by a Charles Taylor had crossed over from Ivory Coast to challenge the government’s authority. Stories were that Taylor had the magic, so superhuman he was able to bathe in boiling water, impervious to bullets for having eaten the hearts of his enemies. Yet, all that seemed far away, “up country,” not his family’s concern.

Then, one early morning that December, the pop, whistle and slap of gunfire reached Jay’s neighborhood. After weeks in the cross-fire, his dad announced they were going to take their chances on the road to Sierra Leone rather than be picked off one-at-a-time where they stood.

No-one should ever have to endure what Jay and family experienced in the next several days, largely walking the 50 miles to the border only to be confronted at the last checkpoint by a 14-year- old commander, in charge by being a stone-cold killer. It was eight-year-old Jay who begged him for his remaining family’s lives.

Jay, by now 25, shared this with me at a 2005 youth human rights conference in Ghana. Fully ignorant of the Liberian genocide and the 2003 U.N. occupation that ended it, I had volunteered to coach young delegates on public speaking, one week in Africa, a few souvenir pics, and out. Yet on the last day, Jay asked me a question: Would I help him? While the idea was outlandish. How is one (older) guy from L.A. and one (much younger) survivor of the killing fields going to make any difference?” Then, I heard myself say, “Yes.”

B. The Road So Far

Now in our 20th year of collaboration and despite all barriers (the global pandemic being only the latest), we core members continue to work to make human rights – through the right to meaningful education – a fact in West Africa. We thus devote our African Literacy Campaign to creating and sustaining a Study-Tech based literacy initiative throughout region.

Over recent decades, West Africa has been one of the most challenging regions of the planet: Bloody civil wars notorious for child soldiers, endemic poverty, entrenched corruption.

Then came the horrors of Ebola (2014-2016), a relative ripple alongside the COVID-19 chaos, cutting off communities from communities and disrupting yet again the ability of nations such as Liberia and Sierra Leone from orderly education of its young populations.

The struggles of such countries are stark demonstration of illiteracy as the most destructive human rights violation. It makes violations of the remainder of the 30 articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) possible.

Jay and I started in 2006 with the African Human Rights Leadership Campaign for Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI), since that time activating thousands of youths as human rights educators, teaching by example and deed.

In August, 2013 came news that every one of the 17,000 high school graduates applying to the University of Liberia had flunked the entrance exam. Explanation: a newly appointed minister had changed the grading from a bell curve to a 70% proficiency standard. … and not a one passed. Result: greater powers promptly sacked the minister.

We thus came to recognize West Africa’s struggles over recent decades -- bloody civil wars notorious for child soldiers, endemic poverty, entrenched corruption -- are stark demonstration of illiteracy as the most destructive human rights violation.

Thus, with Ebola’s passing in 2016 we have focused wholly on Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (education), partnering with Applied Scholastics International, an organization uniquely qualified to offer the solution to illiteracy through the proven effective learning methods of American author and innovator L. Ron Hubbard, widely known as “Study Technology ” or “Study Tech.”

Over the four most recent trips, in 2022/2024, we continued our successful coalition building and delivery, including:

● In Liberia, highly praised two-day Study Technology seminars and workshops ● to some 80 professors and instructors at Cuttington University’s main Suakoko campus; ● to another 60-plus faculty at Cuttington’s Schools of Graduate and Professional Studies in Monrovia; and ● to some 30 youth and community leaders from the Federation of Liberian Youth (FLY) and affiliated organizations; and

● In Ghana, a like series of seminars to hundreds of secondary and primary educators in multiple districts of the Ghana Education Service, Central Region.

Among so many, one instructor wrote:

“This has been an amazing experience. My teaching abilities have been enhanced many fold and my passion for nurturing young minds ignited. The lesson planning and learning barriers material signal profound changes in my classroom dynamics.

“Our facilitators exuded warmth and enthusiasm. The interactive process was exceptional.

“I will certainly practice what I’ve gleaned. My teaching philosophy, I believe, has been transformed.

“I remain committed to my journey of growth and learning, both personally and for the young minds I am privileged to guide.”

CA

C. Our Ends, Plans and the Dream

Are these challenges -- illiteracy, poverty, corruption, injustice -- insurmountable? The real question was and is whether one is willing to fulfill the first prerequisite no matter the odds: To show up.

Thus, over the coming months, we return to continue the work, including:

-

● Over two weeks beginning February 3, Dr. Odewumi will intensively train the first 25 top Liberian educators to become certified Study Tech instructors;

● Beginning in March, those certified instructors will deliver Study Tech essentials, including lesson planning, to the next several hundred Liberian primary and secondary teachers, with successively greater training volumes to follow;

● Continue oversight and assistance to the certified Ghanaian Study Tech instructors to nationwide expansion of their parallel teacher training initiative; and

● Through supporting Ghanaian opinion leaders and the new presidential administration in Liberia, continue to extend our coalition building critical to advancing competency-based learning throughout the region.

Only by an effective literacy education movement -- equipping the emerging generations with competent, courageous leadership -- can West Africa emerge from the wars, exploitation and other disasters that have plagued the region for too long. At greater and greater scales, we continue to contribute in ways that can make a true difference toward this worthy and vital end.

Thank you so much for your support.

Tim Bowles

Clearwater, Florida U.S.A.

January 23, 2024

When one embarks with good heart, high hopes and perhaps a little courage thrown in, who knows what and how much road will be traveled?

Those familiar know we have kept this work going through GoFundMe and the generosity of many hundreds of supporters. Yet, the reward for 18-plus years of good work fighting illiteracy and for human rights is … more work, backed by the trust of those inspired by our cause.

And so, we continue with perhaps our most critical delivery yet: in late-July, training hundreds of key Liberian and Ghanaian educators in L. Ron Hubbard’s Study Technology, proven effective, competency-based learning. To those who have helped – and to all who will pitch in now – thank you.

A. Beginnings

Joseph Yarsiah, living in Liberia’s capital Monrovia in 1989, was a little kid eagerly looking forward to Christmas. Months earlier, fighters led by a Charles Taylor had crossed over from Ivory Coast to challenge the government’s authority. Stories were that Taylor had the magic, so superhuman he was able to bathe in boiling water, impervious to bullets for having eaten the hearts of his enemies. Yet, all that seemed far away, “up country,” not his family’s concern.

Then, one early morning that December, the pop, whistle and slap of gunfire reached Jay’s neighborhood. After weeks in the cross-fire, his dad announced they were going to take their chances on the road to Sierra Leone rather than be picked off one-at-a-time where they stood.

No-one should ever have to endure what Jay and family experienced in the next several days, largely walking the 50 miles to the border only to be confronted at the last checkpoint by a 14-year- old commander, in charge by being a stone-cold killer. It was eight-year-old Jay who begged him for his remaining family’s lives.

Jay, by now 25, shared this with me at a 2005 youth human rights conference in Ghana. Fully ignorant of the Liberian genocide and the 2003 U.N. occupation that ended it, I had volunteered to coach young delegates on public speaking, one week in Africa, a few souvenir pics, and out. Yet on the last day, Jay asked me a question: Would I help him? While the idea was outlandish. How is one (older) guy from L.A. and one (much younger) survivor of the killing fields going to make any difference?” Then, I heard myself say, “Yes.”

B. The Road So Far

Now in our 18th year of collaboration and despite all barriers (the global pandemic being only the latest), we core members continue to work to make human rights – through the right to meaningful education – a fact in West Africa. We thus devote our African Literacy Campaign to creating and sustaining a Study-Tech based literacy initiative throughout region by the establishment of national and regional literacy education teacher training centers.

The initiative continues with our return to Liberia and Ghana July 15 – 30, 2023 to deliver: ● “Competency Education and Citizenship” seminars to the faculty of Cuttington University Schools of Graduate and Professional Studies, Monrovia, Liberia; ● like seminars to secondary and primary educators in three districts of the Ghana Education Service; and ● to further extend our coalition building critical to long-range viability and success, including development work with the Timothy Bowles Global Cares Foundation School (Global Cares).

Over recent decades, West Africa has been one of the most challenging regions of the planet: Bloody civil wars notorious for child soldiers, endemic poverty, entrenched corruption.

Then came the horrors of Ebola (2014-2016), a relative ripple alongside the COVID-19 chaos, cutting off communities from communities and disrupting yet again the ability of nations such as Liberia and Sierra Leone from orderly education of its young populations.

The struggles of such countries are stark demonstration of illiteracy as the most destructive human rights violation. It makes violations of the remainder of the 30 articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) possible.

Jay and I started in 2006 with the African Human Rights Leadership Campaign for Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI), since that time activating thousands of youth of the region as human rights educators, teaching by example and deed.

In August, 2013 came news that every one of the 17,000 high school graduates applying to the University of Liberia had flunked the entrance exam. Explanation: a newly appointed minister had changed the grading from a bell curve to a 70% proficiency standard. … and not a one passed. Result: greater powers promptly sacked the minister.

We thus came to recognize West Africa’s struggles over recent decades -- bloody civil wars notorious for child soldiers, endemic poverty, entrenched corruption -- are stark demonstration of illiteracy as the most destructive human rights violation. With Ebola’s passing in 2016 we have focused wholly on Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (education), partnering with Applied Scholastics International, an organization uniquely qualified to offer the solution to illiteracy through the proven effective learning methods of American author and innovator L. Ron Hubbard, widely known as “Study Technology ” or “Study Tech.”

Over two trips in 2022 and another in March this year, we continued our successful coalition building and delivery, including:

● In Liberia, highly praised two-day Study Technology seminars and workshops ● to some 80 professors and instructors at Cuttington University’s main Suakoko campus; and ● to some 30 youth and community leaders from the Federation of Liberian Youth (FLY) and affiliated organizations; and

● In Accra and in Central Region, Ghana similar seminars to policymakers and educators with equally positive results.

Among so many, one teacher wrote:

“What I have gained from this workshop is so amazing and overwhelming to express. I have learned to become a better, caring and loving professional. Knowing what you have been doing incorrectly and thinking you have been doing the right thing all along enables me to be the change in my classroom and in my life from this point forward.

“Thank you for the time and effort. I am pledging my allegiance to a whole new method in teaching that will enable my students to become better citizens.”

MBD

C. Our Ends, Plans and the Dream

Are these challenges -- illiteracy, poverty, corruption, injustice -- insurmountable? The real question was and is whether one is willing to fulfill the first prerequisite no matter the odds: To show up.

Thus in a few weeks – over two weeks from July 15 – we return to continue the work, including:

● Delivery of “Effective Learning and Citizenship” seminars to the faculty of Cuttington University Schools of Graduate and Professional Studies, Monrovia, Liberia;

● Delivery of like seminars to secondary and primary educators in three districts of the Ghana Education Service; and

● Extension of our coalition building critical to long-range viability and success, including collaboration with Global Cares leadership and other stakeholders to advance competency-based learning throughout the region.

Only through an effective literacy education movement -- equipping the emerging generations with competent, courageous leadership -- can West Africa emerge from the wars, exploitations and other disasters that have plagued the region for too long. We aim to contribute in ways that can make a true difference toward this worthy and vital end.

Thank you so much for your support.

Tim Bowles

Pasadena, California U.S.A.

June 25, 2023

Be careful what you wish for!

On my first contact with young West Africans -- July, 2005 in Ghana -- with their passionate optimism despite overwhelming illiteracy borne of a brutal, very recent past, I had the notion that, just maybe, we might work together to make a difference.

Suddenly, it’s nearly 20 years later, with tens-of-thousands inspired by our persistence and good work, fueled through the GoFundMe-funneled generosity of many hundreds of supporters.

Yet, this is only prologue. Our challenge is no longer how to introduce the region’s educators in L. Ron Hubbard’s Study Technology, proven effective, competency-based learning. The task now is to create the capacity to meet the exploding demand for such training. For instance, through the several workshops conducted in Central Region over the last 18 months, the Ghana Education Service regional director has called for Study Tech instruction to all 22,000 teachers under his administration.

So, be careful what you wish for. From their training in February and March, the first ten top Ghanaian educators are now certified as Study Tech instructors. Starting next week, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, they will embark in turn on training the first several hundred teachers in the Central Region.

Thus, with increasing orders of magnitude, we work to answer the regional director's call. And thus, once again, we must generate the funds necessary to make the impossible possible, an educational renaissance in countries that very recently, by the weight of poverty, corruption, and war, were seemingly going down for the last time.

To those who have helped get us to this threshold – and to all who will pitch in now – thank you.

A. Beginnings

Joseph Yarsiah, living in Liberia’s capital Monrovia in 1989, was a little kid eagerly looking forward to Christmas. Months earlier, fighters led by a Charles Taylor had crossed over from Ivory Coast to challenge the government’s authority. Stories were that Taylor had the magic, so superhuman he was able to bathe in boiling water, impervious to bullets for having eaten the hearts of his enemies. Yet, all that seemed far away, “up country,” not his family’s concern.

Then, one early morning that December, the pop, whistle and slap of gunfire reached Jay’s neighborhood. After weeks in the cross-fire, his dad announced they were going to take their chances on the road to Sierra Leone rather than be picked off one-at-a-time where they stood.

No-one should ever have to endure what Jay and family experienced in the next several days, largely walking the 50 miles to the border only to be confronted at the last checkpoint by a 14-year- old commander, in charge by being a stone-cold killer. It was eight-year-old Jay who begged him for his remaining family’s lives.

Jay, by now 25, shared this with me at a 2005 youth human rights conference in Ghana. Fully ignorant of the Liberian genocide and the 2003 U.N. occupation that ended it, I had volunteered to coach young delegates on public speaking, one week in Africa, a few souvenir pics, and out. Yet on the last day, Jay asked me a question: Would I help him? While the idea was outlandish. How is one (older) guy from L.A. and one (much younger) survivor of the killing fields going to make any difference?” Then, I heard myself say, “Yes.”

B. The Road So Far

Now in our 19th year of collaboration and despite all barriers (the global pandemic being only the latest), we core members continue to work to make human rights – through the right to meaningful education – a fact in West Africa. We thus devote our African Literacy Campaign to creating and sustaining a Study-Tech based literacy initiative throughout region.

Over recent decades, West Africa has been one of the most challenging regions of the planet: Bloody civil wars notorious for child soldiers, endemic poverty, entrenched corruption.

Then came the horrors of Ebola (2014-2016), a relative ripple alongside the COVID-19 chaos, cutting off communities from communities and disrupting yet again the ability of nations such as Liberia and Sierra Leone from orderly education of its young populations.

The struggles of such countries are stark demonstration of illiteracy as the most destructive human rights violation. It makes violations of the remainder of the 30 articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) possible.

Jay and I started in 2006 with the African Human Rights Leadership Campaign for Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI), since that time activating thousands of youths as human rights educators, teaching by example and deed.

In August, 2013 came news that every one of the 17,000 high school graduates applying to the University of Liberia had flunked the entrance exam. Explanation: a newly appointed minister had changed the grading from a bell curve to a 70% proficiency standard. … and not a one passed. Result: greater powers promptly sacked the minister.

We thus came to recognize West Africa’s struggles over recent decades -- bloody civil wars notorious for child soldiers, endemic poverty, entrenched corruption -- are stark demonstration of illiteracy as the most destructive human rights violation.

Thus, with Ebola’s passing in 2016 we have focused wholly on Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (education), partnering with Applied Scholastics International, an organization uniquely qualified to offer the solution to illiteracy through the proven effective learning methods of American author and innovator L. Ron Hubbard, widely known as “Study Technology ” or “Study Tech.”

Over the four most recent trips, in 2022/2023, we continued our successful coalition building and delivery, including:

● In Liberia, highly praised two-day Study Technology seminars and workshops ● to some 80 professors and instructors at Cuttington University’s main Suakoko campus; ● to another 60-plus faculty at Cuttington’s Schools of Graduate and Professional Studies in Monrovia; and ● to some 30 youth and community leaders from the Federation of Liberian Youth (FLY) and affiliated organizations; and

● In Ghana, a like series of seminars to hundreds of secondary and primary educators in multiple districts of the Ghana Education Service, Central Region.

Among so many, one instructor wrote:

“This has been an amazing experience. My teaching abilities have been enhanced many fold and my passion for nurturing young minds ignited. The lesson planning and learning barriers material signal profound changes in my classroom dynamics.

“Our facilitators exuded warmth and enthusiasm. The interactive process was exceptional.

“I will certainly practice what I’ve gleaned. My teaching philosophy, I believe, has been transformed.

“I remain committed to my journey of growth and learning, both personally and for the young minds I am privileged to guide.”

CA

C. Our Ends, Plans and the Dream

Are these challenges -- illiteracy, poverty, corruption, injustice -- insurmountable? The real question was and is whether one is willing to fulfill the first prerequisite no matter the odds: To show up.

Thus over the coming months, we return to continue the work, including:

-

● Beginning March 23, and extending over the following several weeks, our trained instructors will deliver Study Tech essentials, including lesson planning, to the next 500 Ghanaian primary and secondary teachers, with successively greater training volumes to follow; and

● Through supporting Ghanaian opinion leaders and the new presidential administration in Liberia, continue to extend our coalition building critical to advancing competency-based learning throughout the region.

Only by an effective literacy education movement -- equipping the emerging generations with competent, courageous leadership -- can West Africa emerge from the wars, exploitation and other disasters that have plagued the region for too long. At greater and greater scales, we continue to contribute in ways that can make a true difference toward this worthy and vital end.

Thank you so much for your support.

Tim Bowles

Pasadena, California U.S.A.

April 14, 2024

A. Beginnings

Joseph Yarsiah, living in Liberia’s capital Monrovia in 1989, was a little kid eagerly looking forward to Christmas. Months earlier, fighters led by a Charles Taylor had crossed over from Ivory Coast to challenge the government’s authority. Stories were that Taylor had the magic, so superhuman he was able to bathe in boiling water, impervious to bullets for having eaten the hearts of his enemies. Yet, all that seemed far away, “up country,” not his family’s concern.

Then, one early morning that December, the pop, whistle and slap of gunfire reached Jay’s neighborhood. After weeks in the cross-fire, his dad announced they were going to take their chances on the road to Sierra Leone rather than be picked off one-at-a-time in the house.

No-one should ever have to endure what Jay and family experienced in the next several days, largely walking the 50 miles to the border only to be confronted at the last checkpoint by a 14-year- old commander, in charge by being a stone-cold killer. It was eight-year-old Jay who begged him for his remaining family’s lives.

Jay, by now 25, related this to me at a 2005 youth human rights conference. Fully ignorant of the Liberian genocide and the 2003 U.N. occupation that ended it, I had volunteered to coach young delegates on public speaking, one week in Ghana, a few souvenir pics, and out. Yet on the last day, Jay asked me a question: Would I help him? While the idea was outlandish – how is one (older) guy from L.A. and one (much younger) survivor of the killing fields going to make any difference? – I heard myself say, “Yes.”

B. The Road So Far

Now in our 18th year of collaboration and despite all barriers (the global pandemic being only the latest), we core members continue to work to make human rights – through the right to meaningful education – a fact in West Africa. We thus devote our African Literacy Campaign to creating and sustaining a Study-Tech based literacy initiative throughout region by the establishment of national and regional literacy education teacher training centers.

The initiative continues with our return to Liberia and Ghana March 23 – April 3, 2023:

● to advance our collaboration since 2006 with the Global Cares Mission Academy – a remarkable school and orphanage that arose from the ashes of the Liberian civil war;

● to deliver yet more introductory seminars and workshops to educators and policymakers, and

● to further extend our coalition building critical to establishment of a permanent Applied Scholastics teacher training and learning center to serve Liberia and the greater West African region.

Over recent decades, West Africa has been one of the most challenging regions of the planet: Bloody civil wars notorious for child soldiers, endemic poverty, entrenched corruption.

Then came the horrors of Ebola (2014-2016), a relative ripple alongside the COVID-19 pandemic, cutting off communities from communities and disrupting yet again the ability of nations such as Liberia and Sierra Leone from orderly education of its young populations.

The struggles of such countries are stark demonstration of illiteracy as the most destructive human rights violation. It makes violations of the remainder of the 30 articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) possible.

Jay and I started in 2006 with the African Human Rights Leadership Campaign for Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI), since that time activating thousands of youth of the region as human rights educators, teaching by example and deed.

In August, 2013 came news that every one of the 17,000 high school graduates applying to the University of Liberia had flunked the entrance exam. Explanation: a newly appointed minister had changed the grading from a bell curve to a 70% proficiency standard. … and not a one passed. Result: greater powers promptly sacked the minister.

We thus came to recognize West Africa’s struggles over recent decades -- bloody civil wars notorious for child soldiers, endemic poverty, entrenched corruption -- are stark demonstration of illiteracy as the most destructive human rights violation. With Ebola’s passing in 2016 we have focused wholly on Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (education), partnering with Applied Scholastics International, an organization uniquely qualified to offer the solution to illiteracy through the proven effective learning methods of American author and innovator L. Ron Hubbard, widely known as “Study Technology ” or “Study Tech.”

Over two trips in 2022, we continued our successful coalition building and, in October-November:

• In Liberia, we delivered at Cuttington University’s main campus a two-day, highly praised Study Technology seminar and workshop to some 80 professors and instructors; and

• In Ghana, we delivered in Accra and in Central Region similar seminars to policymakers and educators with equally positive results.

Among so many, one teacher wrote:

“What I have gained from this workshop is so amazing and overwhelming to express. I have learned to become a better, caring and loving professional. Knowing what you have been doing incorrectly and thinking you have been doing the right thing all along enables me to be the change in my classroom and in my life from this point forward.

“Thank you for the time and effort. I am pledging my allegiance to a whole new method in teaching that will enable my students to become better citizens.”

MBD

C. Our Ends and the Dream

Are these challenges -- illiteracy, poverty, corruption, injustice -- insurmountable? The real question was and is whether one is willing to fulfill the first prerequisite no matter the odds: To show up.

Thus in a few weeks – from March 23 and over the next ten days – we return to continue the work, including:

-

• In Liberia, collaboration with our long-term colleague Mother Florence and her Global Cares Mission Academy to create a literacy education training center open to all as well as further association with Cuttington and other stakeholders to advance competency-based learning; and

• In Ghana, further planning and delivery with the Ghana Education Service to the same ends.

Only through an effective literacy education movement -- equipping the emerging generations with competent, courageous leadership -- can West Africa emerge from the wars, exploitations and other disasters that have plagued the region for too long. We aim to contribute in ways that can make a true difference toward this worthy and vital end.

Thank you so much for your support.

Tim Bowles

Pasadena, California U.S.A.

March 1, 2023

In the memory of our dear friend Jan Silber, who recently passed, I am prompted to redouble our African outreach. Though she was never able to come to Liberia, Jan loved and generously supported our work with the Global Cares Academy and Orphanage.

In Jan's name and on her request to be remembered through donations to that school, we, yet again, reach to our supporters -- former, current and those to come -- to help Global Cares achieve its decades-long dream, a model institution to serve the children and transform a nation so long plagued by illiteracy, poverty and war.

***

Little did I know on my first journey to West Africa -- volunteering in 2005 to assist in a one-week youth conference on human rights -- that at least in spirit I would never fully return home. Humanity reached out, not so much to take me by the hand as to grab a hold of my heart. Now, nearly two decades on, helping the peoples of “The Continent” is my continuing calling and joy.

Over recent decades, West Africa has been one of the most challenging regions of the planet, including the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars and genocides (1988-2003 and 1991-2002 respectively), Ebola (2014-2015), COVID (2020-2022) and, through it all, one of the highest regional illiteracy rates on the planet.

And so, I have worked – along with many courageous and inspired West African youth leaders and our Western world donors and supporters – to make the human right to education a regional reality by training teachers and students on L. Ron Hubbard’s Study Technology through Applied Scholastics International.

Partnership in Liberia with the Global Cares Mission Academy and Orphanage and its founder Florence Morris has been a key aspect of our work since my first trip to that country, in 2006. Against all the seemingly insurmountable hardships in one of the world’s poorest nations, “Mother Florence” has taken in, raised and educated thousands of children, many of them orphans, since the slaughters stopped with United Nations intervention in 2003.

While our support of Global Cares through the past 19 years has been meaningful – monies for essential building repairs, paper, pens, books, rice and other provisions (out of which, and to my amazement, they added my name to the school early last year!) – Mother Florence, her teachers and staff remain starkly poor yet defiantly resolute in their mission, taking on 150-200 students in leaky, broken buildings lacking electricity, running water.

In keeping with Jan's wish, it is time to take our Global Cares support to the next level. Along with my close Liberian collaborator Joseph Jay Yarsiah and a well-respected local contractor, we are embarked on a full renovation of the Global Cares facility, including solid foundation, walls, roofing and windows, along with insulation, plumbing and electrical power.

With construction projected to begin as soon as feasible this year, we are seeking the funds needed – tax deductible as donations to Applied Scholastics International -- for renovation labor and materials along with furniture, books and related materials.

We of course hope you can help us meet this immediate target to bring Mother Florence’s long sought attainment of a model institution dedicated to the children and thus the future of Liberia.

Again, thanks and best wishes,

Tim Bowles

Pasadena, California

January 12, 2024

Now in our 17th year of collaboration and despite all barriers -- the global pandemic being only the latest -- we core members of the African Literacy Campaign rededicate ourselves to creating and sustaining our Study-Tech based literacy initiative throughout West Africa through the establishment of national and regional literacy education teacher training centers.

The initiative continues with our return to Liberia and Ghana October 24 – November 5, 2022 to deliver introductory seminars and workshops, thus extending our coalition building critical to long-range viability and success.

Over recent decades, West Africa has been one of the most challenging regions of the planet.

Illiteracy fueled the hatred, fear, and bloodthirsty revenge that marked Liberia’s coup d’etat in 1979-80 , its 14 years of genocidal civil war between 1989 – 2003 and the 11 years of similarly savage conflict in neighboring Sierra Leone (1991 – 2002). This region is notorious for child soldiers, kids as young as 7 or 8 are reduced to mindless killing machines as graphically portrayed in the motion picture Beasts of No Nation (2015).

As the region struggled to recover from these insane slaughters, Ebola hit and ran largely out of control, for most of 2014 and into 2015, with more than 22,400 cases and more than 8,900 deaths to the disease. Among other devastating effects, the disease forced the indefinite closure of Liberia’s schools nationwide for the better part of a year.

The Ebola disaster spilled into the West in late 2014, with two persons dying of the disease in the U.S., accompanied by media hysteria and growing public panic.

As horrible as that was for West Africa, it was a relative ripple alongside the COVID-19 pandemic, effectively cutting off nations from nations and continents from continents and disrupting the ability of nations such as Liberia and Sierra Leone from orderly education of its young populations.

The struggles of such countries are stark demonstration of illiteracy as the most destructive human rights violation. It makes possible violations of the remainder of the 30 articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

B. Actions

These humanitarian disasters must be a wake-up call to all but those terminally deaf and blind to the world’s sufferings. Effective action is not a luxury here. It is required.

I am Pasadena, California lawyer. Along with many courageous and inspired West African youth leaders, I created the African Human Rights Leadership Campaign for Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) in 2006, activating thousands of youth of the region as human rights educators, teaching by example and deed.

Now focusing on UDHR Article 26 of the UDHR, we have partnered since 2016 with Applied Scholastics International (APS), an organization uniquely qualified to offer the solution to illiteracy through the proven effective learning methods of American author and innovator L. Ron Hubbard, widely known as “Study Technology ” or “Study Tech.”

After our successful coalition-building trip in July, our 2022 phase continues with vital steps to build a sustainable initiative for true competency-based education in one of the most challenging regions of our world today. With your help:

• In Liberia, we will be delivering a two-day Study Technology symposium to an expected 100 professors and instructors at one of the leading universities in the country; and

• In Ghana, we will deliver a one-day seminar to national policymakers in Accra and, in Central Region, the two-day symposium to leading educators.

C. The Dream

Only through an effective literacy education movement -- equipping the emerging generations with competent, courageous leadership -- can West Africa emerge from the wars, corruptions and other disasters that have plagued the region for too long. We aim to contribute in ways that can make a genuine difference toward this worthy and vital end.

Thank you so much for your support.